Glossier London

06 October 2022 – The London Glossier Store

The first post on my blog is going to be focussing on a well-designed space, rather than an individual object. During my time attending the London Design Fair, I took a trip to Covent Garden’s Glossier shop. Glossier is a skincare, makeup, body care, and fragrance brand that was founded in 2014. Their website says that they design products that their customers wish existed, gaining this knowledge and inspiration from their website ‘Into The Gloss’. They aim to design makeup and products that put the health of your skin first and enhance what you have, not cover it up.

Figure 1 - Glossier London seating area – Photo by Kim Denton

When first walking into their London store, I immediately felt a strong sense of brand identity. The company’s branding/packaging is very simple, tying into their philosophy of clean makeup and skincare. They use three main colours – baby pink, white and black and add accent colours onto products that are suggestive of the colour, smell, or taste of what is inside. You can see in figure 1 that the pink bench in the seating area of the store, ties in with their branding.

Figure 2 - Glossier website homepage - Taken from the Glossier website

You can see in the image above, their simple yet attractive branding style. For me, this website makes me think that the product is high quality but doesn’t focus on too many frills. The store also portrayed this, showcasing the products, and putting them on centre stage, and the displays were effectively designed around the products.

Figure 3 - Eyeshadow display - Photo by Kim Denton

Looking at figure 3 you can see that the ridges in this stand perfectly fit the products, everything was in the correct place as it was very instinctive to put it back in the correct area. It was an interesting and clever piece of design that grabbed my attention but didn’t detract from the products themselves. I think this design can be described by some of Dieter Rams' principles of good design, it is understandable, useful, and long-lasting. It helps interestingly perform a task, and I personally think this is quite a timeless design as it is not overly stylised. Geometric shapes can be seen throughout design history, not often being kicked out of fashion.

Figure 4 - Glossier shop floor - Photo by Kim Denton

Looking at the photo above you can see an area of the shop floor displaying the products. This area was separate from the seating area shown in figure 1. I think this is an excellent design choice as it allowed an area for people to sit if they weren’t interested in shopping and not feel as though they were in the way. I think this would be an excellent space for parents, friends, or partners who are reluctantly out for a day shopping with someone. The shopper doesn’t feel pressurised to rush round the shop as they know whoever they are with has a place to rest their feet.

I also particularly like the way they have designed around the old building, complementing the original features like the cornice on the ceiling and the lovely exposed wooden floor. I think this once again ties into their brand philosophy of enhancing what’s already there.

Figure 5 - Waiting area for purchases - Photo by Kim Denton

The last part of the trip that stuck out to me as good design was the experience of purchasing something. After being able to try out all the products, I spoke to one of the several sales assistants and told them what I would like to buy. They made my order, took my payment, and directed me to the waiting area where I would shortly receive my purchase. When I took a seat, I saw a conveyor belt sending up all the orders to the room. The striking pink and white branded bags circled around, creating almost a child-like excitement, hoping each bag would be yours. I think again this is an example of ingenious design, as it funnels away people that had made their purchases and are no longer browsing to a separate area, making room for the other shoppers.

I think that the Glossier shop has done an excellent job of demonstrating good design and certainly made me think 'Oh wow! That is really great design'. In an era where the high street is dying out, companies need to do something different that makes it worthwhile coming into a shop rather than simply making your purchases from the comfort of your own home. Glossier has certainly done that. It was an enjoyable experience to spend time in the shop, with the small things I have talked about making it a seamless and interesting process. Most of all they created a sense of fun. I think it is important to note however that maybe I have some bias when talking about this, I am a big fan of the brand and think their products are very good, so I went into the shop already excited. I would also say that I am probably their key demographic and that maybe someone older with more disposable income might prefer a more ‘classically luxurious’ experience to what the Glossier shop provides. Despite that this blog is focussing on my feelings about design and I personally think it is excellent. I would look forward to shopping there again.

Glossier website: https://www.glossier.com/